The Association Between Bilingual Animal Naming and Memory Among Bilingual Mexican American Older Adults

Abstract

Background

Monolingual cognitive assessments are standard for bilinguals; the value of bilingual assessment is unknown. Since declines in animal naming accompany memory declines in dementia, we examined the association between bilingual animal naming and memory among bilingual Mexican American (MA) older adults.

Methods

Bilingual MA (n = 155) completed the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) in a Texas community study. Regressions included HCAP memory score (English) as the outcome and English and Spanish animal naming trials as independent variables; demographics and language dominance were covariates.

Results

English animal naming (b = 0.06, P = 0.004) was more reliably associated with memory than Spanish (b = 0.05, P = 0.06). Considered together, only English (b = 0.05, P = 0.02) was associated with memory, not Spanish (b = 0.01, P = 0.63). Conclusions: Spanish animal naming did not uniquely add to English animal naming in its association with memory among bilingual older MA.

Plain Language Summary

Introduction

Cognitive assessment is critical to accurately detect Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias in older adults. Typically, cognitive assessments are performed in one language, even among bilingual individuals.

Aim

We sought to evaluate whether adding a Spanish language test is useful in measuring cognition among US-born, English/Spanish bilingual older adults who completed cognitive assessments in English.

Method

We administered a standard set of cognitive tests in English to bilingual (English/Spanish) older adults in a community-based study in south Texas. We added a Spanish language trial to the Animal naming test, which involves the speeded generation of animal names.

Results

We found that adding the Spanish language animal naming task did not add unique information beyond the English language task in its association with memory performance.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that animal naming in the primary assessment language is sufficient for US-born bilingual individuals who are assessed in English. Longitudinal research is needed to further explore the utility of bilingual cognitive assessments.